COVID-19

The Spanish Flu: 

COVID-19

COVID-19

COVID-19 was similar to the Spanish flu, going towards the fact of how it spread and the negative impacts that it had on the world. Both diseases were spread by coughing or sneezing. The world and its economy was greatly impacted after both of these pandemics.

Cases of Covid-19. Age and month.

Since both diseases came so fast, there was a big delay in the response time with the vaccinations and medication needed to help treat the symptoms of both diseases. So, during both pandemics, people had to rely on quarantine and masks to slow the spread of the disease.

Left - the masks worn by nurses in 1918 during the Spanish flu. Right - masks worn by nurses in 2020 during Covid-19. 

"In terms of duration and origination, there is controversy over the origination of both viruses, and both consist of multiple waves." - National Library of Medicine.

An artist's rendering of the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19.

Influenza and Pneumonia Death Rates, March 1918–June 1919

Sources: Authors’ calculations based on the Mortality Statistics

“The Covid-19 pandemic is going to be much worse than Pearl Harbor. It's going to be nationwide, in every city in every state. And it's going to last for months, not hours. It's going to be an elephant compared to an ant.”
― Oliver Markus Malloy, American Fascism: A German Writer's Urgent Warning To America.

Left: Masked Angelenos attend a minor league baseball game during the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 (Hearst Corporation Los Angeles Examiner/USC Libraries Special Collections). Right: Customers wear face masks as they line up to enter a Costco Wholesale store on April 16, 2020 in Wheaton, Maryland (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images).